


Liminality (your silver garden)

by HandmaidenOfHorror



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Animal Death, F/F, Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Minor Akio/Anthy, Minor Homura/Madoka, Minor Kaworu/Shinji, Post-Canon Fix-It, References to canonical awfulness, Sakura (Cherry Blossoms), Time Loop, Time Travelling Lesbians, Transformation, liminality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23563273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/pseuds/HandmaidenOfHorror
Summary: Anthy finds people who can help her find Utena. Spoilers to totality of all listed series. Please head the warnings and the tags.
Relationships: Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Liminality (your silver garden)

She found it in Wakkanai after years of searching. Fittingly, she thought, for such a dimensional extremum to be located in such an extreme place. It was June, and the temperature was already warm, but still noticeably cooler than what she was used to in her long life first in India and then in Japan.

All her school mates from Ohtori have become adults already, but she has not aged a day, just like she has not aged a day since she’d been killed for the first time. What kind of curse was it? She still had no idea. Her little brother, immortal as she were, at least got to age into adulthood. She has always been jealous of that.

They have spent centuries together, because there was nobody else to turn to. And ironically, when, when she finally found somebody else, somebody she could turn to, this person disappeared without a trace, as if she’s never been there.

Anthy stopped in front of a villa. She couldn’t tell how she knew it was the place was looking for, she just knew. The gate was open, and music was coming from the inside. She decided it was the clearest invitation she could get and stepped inside.

The garden she found herself in was much bigger on the inside than it seemed to be from the street, but she already expected that. It was a mixture of a Japanese and an English garden, eccentric in its eclecticity.

She stepped from one stone to another, walking an overgrown path among cherry trees blossoming white and pink and everything in between, sparrows singing and flying playfully from one branch to another, sometimes landing on the ground between roses and lilies blooming in all shapes and colors possible.

Was this garden real? Could all those flowers bloom at the same time? Perhaps in Wakkanai they could, very late sakura blossoms and very early lilies and roses (so unlike the roses of Ohtori), but probably it was just the magic of this place, liminal like Ohtori, but so much unlike Ohtori. A garden, not a cage.

Finally she reached the building, a wooden house in a style half Japanese and half European (other travelers whispering in the dark said that it resembled Russian houses from Siberia), painted white. She walked along the wall towards the source of music, and after walking much longer than seemed plausible she found _them_.

On a large veranda, a pair of teenagers in vintage school uniforms played their instruments, the boy a piano and the girl a violin. They ignored her until she stepped on the veranda, immediately stopping their music and looking at her, the boy with a serene expression while the girl with a frown. Neither of them said anything, so Anthy decided to speak first.

“I am looking for a way to reconnect with a person who is no longer in this world,” she said, “and I heard you could help with impossible things. I beg you, I’ll do anything just to bring her back!”

“Do you really mean ‘ _anything_ ’ when you say it?”, the girl asked skeptically.

“I truly do!”, Anthy ensured her, remembering her recent burial of Chuchu, her longtime friend succumbing to his old age and illness, “There’s nothing left in this world that I feel any sort of connection to, and I cannot cease to exist like humans do.”

The girl seemed moved by her words. In the silence that followed, the boy found an opening to speak.

“Oh dear,” he exclaimed, standing up from his piano, “Let’s discuss that at the table, shall we?”

He motioned to the small table on the too large veranda, where a five o’clock set for three was already prepared. Anthy sat up at the same time as the boy and the girl, and memorized the set: porcelain teapot and three tea sets including jam (Russian-style), porcelain plates and cutlery (English-style) and a large matcha cheesecake at the center of the table (Japanese style). She wasn’t very fond of cheesecake.

“Now, let’s introduce ourselves first,” said the boy, “I’m Kaworu Nagisa. Please just call me Kaworu.”

“Homura Akemi”, the girl introduced herself quickly, “I made the tea.”

“I’m Anthy Himemiya,” said Anthy. To buy more time before wording her plea properly, she poured herself the tea (Black, European-style). 

“I… For a long time, I’ve been living in an enchanted place where I was used for others’ amusement. I met a girl who didn’t want to use me, who came to love me and whom I came to love, but then she was gone, truly gone, with no way of getting her back even with powers I have access to.”

Her confession was followed by prolonged silence. Kaworu and Homura seemed lost in thoughts, in memories. It seemed that Anthy’s words resonated strongly with the two. Anthy took a sip of the tea. It was the best tea she has ever tasted, with components she couldn’t name (perhaps because they were not available in this world).

“Is your resolve strong enough?”, asked Homura, “We can make it so that the two of you meet again, but it would mean all the pain from the past returning too.”

“You will have to overcome the greatest hardships in your life once again, and this time there will be no guarantee you will succeed,” said Kaworu, “You may end up in a situation much worse than where you are now.”

“Will you truly sacrifice everything for her?” they asked in unison.

Anthy closed her eyes. She thought about belonging to Akio again, and it sent shivers of fear through her spine. But then she remember Chuchu, her lovely pet, Miki and Wakaba, with whom she turned out to have a warm friendship after their issues were resolved, even Nanami, who ended up a victim of her trolling more often than she managed to bully her.

She remembered Utena. The brave, compassionate, loving Utena. The Utena for whom she will sacrifice her life without a shadow of doubt.

Anthy drank the rest of the tea, savoring each sip ( _she’s not going to ever get a chance to taste it again, is she?_ ) before replying, “I will.”

This made the other two (teenagers? immortals? gods?) smile.

“Congratulations on making a decision,” said Kaworu.

“Good luck in your next life,” said Homura.

“How do I go into it?”, asked Anthy.

“You already started,” explained Homura, and Anthy realized she is starting to feel dizzy, as if she were about to faint. Homura caught her before she could fall and gently laid her head of her lap. ( _how could she react that fast?)_

Kaworu knelt beside her and the last thing Anthy heard before she finished her long jurney and started it anew was him saying, “Good luck in your next life, Himemiya Anthy.”

**Author's Note:**

> We all know that Homura is a time travelling lesbian, but I believe in the theory that Kaworu is time travelling in a similar way too - in short, this theory explains the character's evolution from anime through manga to the movies (or rather from manga to anime to movies). Adolascence Apocalypse was theorized to be the afterlife of Utena, but what if Anthy is a fellow gay time traveller? I enjoy the concept too much. Have fun decoding the symbolism and finding the psychopomps!


End file.
